There was a small knock at Hope's door that night, long after Landon had fallen deep enough asleep for Hope to push him to the other side of her bed. She slowly pulled back the blankets, tucked them around Landon, and tip-toed to look through the peephole.
She looked between her bed and the doorknob, weighing her choices, and then she slipped out into the hallway silently.
"What are you doing here?" Hope crossed her arms over her chest, covering her pajama shirt as she stared at Penelope.
"I thought you'd want to go look for that puddle," Penelope said. "It's not raining anymore. The field should be all dried up."
"I was sleeping!" Hope protested, starting to shiver in the cold hallway.
"Well now you're not. Are you going in your pajamas or do you want to get changed?"
Hope rolled her eyes, thinking about turning her down. But as cold and as tired as she was, she wanted answers more and she knew Penelope was right. She sighed heavily. "Give me five minutes."
"Take your time."
Penelope sat cross-legged on the floor outside Hope's door, her secret book open across her lap. It was silent now, no students scribbling away this late at night. She picked up where she had left off, nosily reading every thought a Salvatore School student thought important enough to write down that day.
It had been a long time since Penelope felt any sort of guilt over the invasion of privacy. She'd rationalized it so well. She didn't let anyone else see the passages and she would never use it for her own selfish purposes. And if a school full of witches didn't think to check for any suspicious spells on their gifts, that was on them. Penelope really couldn't be blamed for their ignorance.
Besides, if she wasn't spying on all of them, how could she help them the way they so clearly needed her to? If she hadn't been able to read Wade's journal, how would she have known he needed a pick-me-up in the form of a new pair of socks, spelled to always keep him warm? How would she have known that Alyssa Chang needed hexing after making fun of Hannah's new frog rainboots she wore to every class for a week? It was for their own good, really.
Hope closed her dorm door behind her, tucking her keys into the pocket of her jacket. "Let's go before Landon wakes up."
YOU ARE READING
Into Thin Air
FanfictionAfter witnessing an old friend vanish, Hope Mikaelson becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her, even when no one else at the Salvatore School seems to remember her ever existing. With the help of an unlikely ally or two, Hope will unco...
